


Traveling

by WinchesterWarrenSon



Series: Battle Scars Series [15]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Developmentally Disabled Son Goku, Disabled Character, M/M, Relationship Problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 11:39:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4099632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterWarrenSon/pseuds/WinchesterWarrenSon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamcha encourages Goku to go on an adventure, he hasn't had one of those in a while. Yamcha stays behind because of up-coming surgery. Time goes on. And on. And on. Will Yamcha end up like Chichi?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traveling

Yamcha researched what it would take to get a robot leg to replace his bad leg. He couldn't take it anymore, and pain medication injections were expensive. Research took months, and he would admit later that he was being a pest to 18 to get her opinion on things and even went as far as to hunt down 17's number and call him up with questions. 17, however, was not as good-humored as his sister. 

"If you call me again about this, I will come over there and we can re-live the days pre-Cell, understand?" 

Yamcha liked not having a giant hole in his chest. 

Goten had turned eleven and Gohan was twenty-two by the time Yamcha felt like he could go ahead and arrange with a doctor to schedule a surgery for a robotic leg and start going through the process of getting one. 

In the three years that Goku and Yamcha had been together, outside of the . . . insanity of having to take care of over a hundred disabled children and adults for months while Bulma kept their asses out of jail and tried to find a permanent solution to the problem, there hadn't been any adventuring or fighting or training, outside of what Goku did with Vegeta in the GR and Goku's daily runs around the city and sets of push-ups and sit-ups in the living room in the mornings. 

Yamcha knew it was stagnating for Goku, and he figured it was quietly driving the man mad. 

Yamcha entertained the idea of getting back into training after he got the robot leg. He'd never catch up to Goku, but maybe . . . maybe he wasn't done for yet. 

At dinner one night, Goku suddenly straightened his back and sat at attention, eyes not really focused on anything but his thoughts were obviously trained on something. 

Yamcha finished chewing the food in his mouth and lowered his chopsticks. 

"What's up?" Yamcha asked. 

"I'm not sure. But a really big power level just flared up." 

. . . Uh oh. 

"Oh, it's not a bad one, though. It doesn't feel bad." 

"Well, that's good. Who do you think it is?" 

"Dunno...." 

Yamcha could see his curiosity starting to gleam in Goku's eyes, and Yamcha smiled softly. 

"You wanna find out?" Yamcha asked. 

"Yeah - !" Goku started, a grin breaking out on his face. But then he stopped himself, the grin already falling away, and Yamcha could see that Goku was now focusing on Yamcha. He could imagine what he was thinking. 

"Then you should find out," Yamcha said, nodding. "Don't worry about me. It's been a while since you had fun." 

Goku's eyebrows furrowed. "You don't want to come with?" 

Yamcha shook his head. "Right now, I'll just be getting in the way. Besides, I've gotta stay where I can keep in contact with the doctor about the surgery, make sure it stays on schedule." 

Spot of silence. Then - "You don't want me to stay here with you when that happens?" 

Yamcha thought about it for a while. He remembered Goku asking if he'd stop yelling at him if he got a robot leg, and he remembered that while he _did_ try as hard as he could to not be cruel when in pain, he didn't always succeed. Goku would hide after being yelled at, and Yamcha wouldn't be able to find him until much later and then Goku would dodge out of apologies and pretend that everything was fine. 

"I think it might be better if I do this next part by myself, then you'll get to see a new, improved me when you get back!" 

Goku just stared at him for a while, then mumbled, "Okay. If you're okay with that...." 

Yamcha nodded, and he waited for the excitement about another adventure to settle back into Goku. He smiled back when the grin returned onto Goku's face.

Goku didn't leave right away. He said he needed the power level to flare up again so he could pinpoint what direction it was in. Though he said he wasn't going to instant-transmission over there. It sounded more fun to take his time getting there, and Yamcha agreed. 

It was about a month later when Goku felt the ki signal flare. 

Goku gave Yamcha a tight hug and a light kiss on the lips, then took off into the air. 

Yamcha waved him goodbye, smiling as he watched him leave. 

Yamcha had gotten Goku a cell phone so he could keep in touch, but Yamcha also doubted Goku would use it much. 

With Goku gone, there was very little to occupy Yamcha's attention aside from his up-coming surgery, and he was getting increasingly excited. A couple months went by, and Yamcha's day of surgery arrived. Goku hadn't called, but Yamcha was too wrapped up in the prospect of his robot leg to be too concerned about it. Puar took off a day from work to go with him to the hospital. 

Yamcha's cell was left in his bag with Puar, but Puar couldn't hear Yamcha's phone vibrating from underneath everything that was on top of it. He missed Goku's first call. 

When Yamcha got out of surgery, he tested his new leg out in a variety of ways: regular walking, running, skipping, jumping, going up steps, and finally testing out how it felt to kick with it. 

It felt incredibly. No more pain, it didn't need to be detached, it was high-grade robotics, though 18 and 17's were fancier and more advanced than his. Still, it was so much better than what he was dealing with before. 

He called Bulma up first thing after he was certain this was the best decision he had ever made. 

He consequently could not shut up about how awesome it was to have this new leg. He talked about it with Bulma, to Vegeta (Vegeta didn't acknowledge him or respond), with Krillin and 18, even Chichi and Piccolo and Gohan when they were in town and seeing Bulma one day. He even called 17 up randomly to talk about it, and 17 responded appropriately. 

"The hell did I tell you about bothering me about fucking cyborg parts!? Leave me the fuck alone!" 

It was almost like the leg had possessed him, but he was so happy to not be in pain anymore that he couldn't help it. After so long of keeping his pain and disability a secret, he felt like he could finally be proud of himself again. 

He was working out again. He went to the gym, ran all around town, cut down on gas and invested in a diet designed for a fighting machine. He was getting back into shape, and it was glorious.

Yamcha failed to notice how awkward Tenshinhan felt when he talked to him about the leg, or how Chiaotzu got rather quiet and didn't say much during the conversation. He failed to pick up on the judgmental tone in Bulma's voice when she asked where Goku was and Yamcha quickly said Goku was on an adventure before jumping back into about the robotic leg. 

"An adventure doing _what_?" Vegeta asked grumpily. 

"He said he felt a really strong power level and went to check it out. Non-emergency, he'll be back eventually." 

"Well, have you heard from him?" Bulma asked, arms crossed. 

"Not yet, but he's probably having fun, and you know him, never does keep in touch when he's out and about. But if he wants to drop a ring, he has a cell on him." 

"Since when?" 

"Since I got him one." 

"Huh...." 

"Speaking of phones," Vegeta said, "does anyone else hear that buzzing noise?" 

Yamcha, Bulma, Puar, and Oolong looked over at him, then paused to listen closely for it. Puar moved around in the bag, then pulled out Yamcha's phone. 

"Ah, we missed it," Puar said. She examined the phone for a bit, then her little eyes widened. "Uh oh." 

"What is it?" Oolong asked as Yamcha took the phone from Puar. 

"Uh...." 

"28 messages and missed calls!?" Yamcha said, immediately clicking on buttons to see who they were from and to hear the messages. 

"Um, yeah...." 

"Who're they from?" Oolong asked. 

"W-well, if that number . . . looks familiar for the reason I think it's familiar . . . ." Puar said, looking over Yamcha's shoulder. Yamcha paled considerably as reality settled in. 

"Ohhhhhh no," Oolong said, paling as well. "Please tell me we're wrong." 

Yamcha pressed the button to listen to the voice messages. 

"You have twenty-eight messages. First message: Hey, Yamcha. It's Goku. I know it's been a while, I'm not used to this mobile phone yet. It's also hard to get signal in mountain areas? I was wondering how the surgery stuff was going, if it happened yet, how you liked it.... I'll talk to you later." 

Shit. Yamcha listened to the date of the message. It had been on his surgery day. He hadn't thought to check his phone at all, he had just gone ahead and dialed Bulma's number. 

"Second message: Hey Yamcha. You haven't called back yet, but maybe my signal's just been bad. I think the ki signal is coming from down south. So that's where I'll be. Did the surgery happen? Call me back, okay?" 

"Shit," Yamcha said out loud, realizing what had happened. He could attach things he had done on each of the dates of the messages. Getting gym membership. Telling everyone about his new leg. Pushing himself more and more to beat the amount of running he had done the day before. 

"Eleventh message: Yamcha? Are you there? At all? Puar and Oolong would call me if something had happened, right? Yamcha?" 

"Twelfth message: Yamcha, if you're dead, this isn't fair. You're not allowed to make it so I can't sense your ki if you've gone away. Please call me back." 

"Fuck." 

"Thirteenth message: I contacted King Kai via telepathy, and he says you're alive.... What's going on? Yamcha, c'mon." 

The dates were scattered, it wasn't like he was calling every day. How had Yamcha missed all these calls? Why had he not been paying attention? 

'Cause he had a brand new toy he had been far too excited about. He did not regret getting the leg, he just regretted the behavior it had triggered. Nothing would make him regret the leg, it made things not hurt anymore. 

"What is it?" Bulma asked, leaning forward on the table. She couldn't hear the messages. 

"Seventeenth message: Yamcha, if you don't want to talk to me at all, you can just tell me and I'll leave you alone...." 

Yamcha pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead, Goku's voice just barely wavering as the further to the end they got. 

"Twenty-fourth message: Do you not want me to come back? Is that it? 'Cause Puar cut the phone chord that one time when she didn't want me going back to Chichi and . . . and you said that was a bad thing for her to do, so what's the difference now? I can't figure out what you want from me." 

"Twenty-fifth message: The ki signal's from a kid. I've been training him some. I stopped in to say hi to Chichi - 'cause Instant Transmission. She says you had the operation weeks ago.... Says you're really happy and not hurt at all.... What the hell, Yamcha?" 

" _Fuck - !_ " 

"They're all from Goku, aren't they?" Oolong asked, clutching his glass. "Man, the one time he actually follows through in keeping in touch, and we fuck it up." 

"Twenty-eighth message: . . . It's okay if you don't want me back home. Grandpa didn't want me after all, either. But you have to tell me I can't come back home.... Please call me back? Even if it's just to say that?" 

"End of messages." 

Yamcha immediately dialed Goku's cell number and waited for him to pick up. 

It rung three times before Yamcha heard something on the other line. 

"Hello?" said the voice of what sounded like a little Indian boy. 

"H-hey, is Goku there?" 

"Yes, he is. Goku-sensei!"

Yamcha waited, and he heard Goku's voice on the other line. It sounded hesitant and cautious, but relieved. 

"Yamcha?" 

"Yeah. It's me." 

"Yamcha!" 

"Yeah.... Shit, Goku, I'm sorry...." 

"It's okay," Goku said, and Yamcha wanted to throw the phone or hit him or something because _no it wasn't_ , Goku had been worried he had _killed himself_ as he was wont to try, and when that fear had gone away, he had thought he _wanted him to stay gone_. "How's the leg?" 

"Th-the leg's fine. I really like it," Yamcha said, and it was the least amount he had ever said about it since he got it. "What's going on over there? You found the source of the ki?" 

"Mm-hm. His name is Uub. Remember that wish on the Dragon I made after we defeated Majin Buu?" 

"Uhhhh...." 

"Well, I wished for a good reincarnation of Kid Buu and that is who Uub is. He's a really good kid, he's five years old." 

For a moment, Yamcha wondered if the kid was still sitting there while Goku talked about this, but he didn't focus on the thought. 

"Goku, I'm really sorry, I should've picked up - !" 

"It's okay," Goku repeated, and it frustrated Yamcha more. But before he could say anything, Goku continued. "Do I get to come home when I'm ready?" 

Yamcha found it difficult to speak because he shouldn't even need to _ask_ that. 

"Of course you can," Yamcha said, his body starting to tremble all over. Aside from the robotic leg. It stayed as solid and still as ever when he was sitting. 

He could hear the brighter expression on Goku's face. 

"Yay! In that case, I'm gonna stay and train Uub for a while longer, then I'll give the kid a break and come on home! I miss you!" 

"I miss you too...." 

"Bye!"

"Bye...." 

Goku hung up, and Yamcha slammed the phone down and ran both hands through his hair and groaned loudly at himself. 

Bulma and Vegeta waited for an explanation, and Bulma swatted Yamcha upside the head when he came out with it. 

"You're lucky Goku doesn't care much about stuff like that," Bulma said, but Yamcha disagreed with the assumption. 

Goku cared, but he wasn't going to go out of his way to make Yamcha - or anyone else - adjust their behavior for his emotional needs. He may have pushed Gohan to fight, but misunderstandings over your son's love vs. tolerance for fighting was a lot different from recognizing someone doesn't want to do something and having to choose between forcing them or letting them do as they wished. 

_Goku had thought Yamcha had sent him off to get rid of him...!_

Vegeta stood up. 

"I want to see how your leg withstands the GR. Follow me." 

Vegeta walked off, and Yamcha found he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. 

The answer was the robotic leg held up better than the rest of him did.


End file.
